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No company evokes Indian business
better than TATA. The legendary family business founded by Jamsetji Tata in
1868, TATA has established a domestic and international reputation that is
arguably greater than any other Indian business.

When it comes to the numbers,
TATA is truly impressive. The TATA Group is the holding company of 29 companies
listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. It accounts for 8 percent of the market
capitalization of the Bombay Stock Exchange. TATA has made its mark in every
major industry in India - steel, power, automobile, aviation, information
technology, telecommunications, financial services, consumer goods, education,
healthcare, and more.

But perhaps its role in the
building of India and placing the importance of community before the profit
motive are factors that have contributed most to its success - certainly from
the point of view of many of its stakeholders. The journey of development of
India can be traced through the house of TATA and the businesses that they
ventured into. And during that journey profitability was not the only thing on
the company’s mind. Indeed, nation building was just as important, if not more
so.

For example, when the family
built TATA Steel in Sakchi, now Jamshedpur, TATA also established an entire
city around it. When the Taj Mahal Hotel was built in Mumbai, it was “to
attract people to India”. When Tata Hydro Electric Power Supply Company was
established, it was with the hope that Bombay would become a “Smokeless City”.
And today the mission of the TATA Group continues to be: “To improve the
quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term
stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust”.

The early founders of the company
- Jamsetji Tata, Sir Dorabji Tata and Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata - worked
to uplift the country and to improve the quality of life of the people around
them. This was so central to their decision making that many times they put the
importance of the community before their own wealth. In fact, profits were
always secondary to Jamsetji Tata, and this tradition has been followed by his
successors. But because they pursued excellence in whatever they did profits
followed.

Sometimes in the world where
instant gratification is so dominant in most societies there is a need to go
back to the life and times of people like Jamsetji Tata and the other earlier
pioneers of TATA to understand and appreciate their values just a little bit
more.